Iraq and Afganistan, why did we not go in with enough force to level these countries and do just that?

Question

Moral808 fine Iran and Syria too! Lets get it done!

I had a wonderful plan, level those countries,Move the illegal immigrants their to work"OUR" new oil fields,and strip the poppy fields. this would solve so many problems. Terrorism. drugs illegals and oil!

Answer 1

The answer to your question is a simple one, in my mind, at least! We have politicians, instead of generals running the war and making all the decisions, just like in the 3rd Reich.

We all remember Hitler and why he lost the war, don't we? well, the same thing applies to this war. The wrong people are pulling the strings. people who don't know about war. People who have never been in combat. People who are afraid of, or base all their decisions on what the voters are thinking.

The sad part of all this, is the US has over 700 people in uniform with the rank of brigadier general or above, yet we rely on a 73 year old geriatric to make all our decisions for us, in a war zone. What's wrong with this picture?

Answer 2

First off. There is not much to level..........
Next, the cold war was over. We have a much smaller military than 20 year ago. In the 1980's we were working on a 600 ship Navy. Today its about 260. Same with Ground forces. Plus you seem to lack a understanding of logistics. We have enough trouble Housing, moving, and resupling troops on the other side of the world now at current levels. We don't have 200 Liberty ships to transport stuff like WW2. Afganistan is land locked, mountianous, and had only a ex Soviet airbase to work with. In Iraq, we wanted to send troop thru Turkey. They balked however, so the 4th div sat in the MED.

Once you get the troops there you need to suport them. Living quarters, mess halls, hospitals, water,mail, etc. We have plenty of folks in uniform. However many are not infantry. That is the problem. So we have artilliery & Engineers doing infantry missions. There is also the female factor. The Army has a high number of Females. So out of 100,000 troops, only 40-60,000 are combat arms.

Answer 3

Have you ever tried to wipe out all the ants in an ants' nest? It can't be done and the more you try, the more ants appear, angry and suicidally determined to take you down. They win in the end - because they're the ones with right on their side. They were violated.

This is the lesson that America never learns - might does not make it right. You guys always lose and end up leaving with your tail between your legs.

Why? Because if you try to wipe out the ants more just keep coming at you - be it North Koreans, or Vietcong, or Somalis or the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wake up and learn the lesson.

Do you want a good example of this? An example to make the typical xenophobic American retch - its the French. French forces are coolly and quietly bringing Arabs and Jews together in Lebanon to restore the mess of the recent US-sanctioned Israeli btlitzgrieg. A few years ago the US was there trying the same thing after the last war, but their approach was the usual US big stick. They were literally thrown into the Mediterranean - another rout of the mightiest military nation on Earth.

Answer 4

Yeah the Russians tried that in Afghanistan in the 1980's and it destroyed Russia. Many have tried to conquer Afghanistan over the centuries and failed. So I think the way we "invaded" Afghanistan was the right approach...get the locals to defeat the Taliban. However we have not put enough economic and rebuilding resources into Afghanistan to win over the people and now we will pay for that.

In Iraq dumb-*** Bush and Rumsfeld thought we would be welcomed with open arms and be treated like the liberators of France in WWII and we would not need the resources to "level" Iraq. Dumb to say the least. Bush can not ever admit he was wrong about anything so his only option is to "stay the course" even though the car is obviously heading over a cliff. If he would have listened to his military advisers in 2003 we probably wouldn't even be in Iraq. If he had listened to his advisers in 2004 we would be out of Iraq by now. In other words Bush screwed the pooch on both of these wars.

Answer 5

We have always had the manpower, the machines, and the materials to do exactly that, however, leveling a country is not a goal many in this country feel is justified regardless. I disagree. They have chosen to wait and see.

When this war hits them (touches them is a nicer way to say it, I guess) they'll change their minds and expect the military to spring into action like the proverbial caged tiger! Roar!!

Truth is it will be too late. Their children will be lying in pools of their own blood and their brains and various body parts will be scattered all over the sidewalk.

I don't fear my govt's action near as much as I fear any in-action it might take. Better to do the deed and ask for forgivness than to try and appease and pay dearly for not doing.

Answer 6

The problem with trying to knock these countries back into the stone age is that most of the country is already in the stone age before we got there.

Answer 7

Because regardless of party, our leaders all want to win a popularity contest more than they want to win. Why else would so many people post trash like other countries hating us for going in.

Answer 8

Because we have libs like Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan - not to mention 99.9% of the media in the way! They are criticizing our troops constantly and crucifying our president. It would be hard to do your job effectively too if you had a whiny liberal hanging off your back all day screaming that you weren't supposed to be there, huh?

Answer 9

Becuase we are smart enough to not try to start a nuclear war, and we didnt know much about the area. We basically had no idea what to do. Now we know we have to shut up stupid people and do what we should have done in the 90's, get iraq its own government.

Answer 10

We killed a lot of people in both of these countries the majority of whom had nothing to do with 9/11. How bloodthirsty are you? In the end we only sow the seeds for further attacks against us.